PLAN SUGGESTED FOR EASING OF SCHOOL ROLLS

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 May 1949, Page 4

PLAN SUGGESTED FOR EASING OF SCHOOL ROLLS

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. (0.C.)< —Compulsory education for children in New Zealand begins at the age of 7, not 5, Mr A. McNiel pointed out’at a meeting of the Canterbury Education Board yesterday when discussing the supply of teachers. Mr McNiel suggested that if parents of children reaching the age of 5 in the winter term voluntarily refrained from sending them to school until the third term the pressure on the board, teachers, and committees would be postponed. t A former senior inspector of schools, Mr McNiel said that such children would lose nothing educationally and would gain physically, as winter was a poor time to introduce them to schools. If such a practice was adopted generally school populations would remain static probably, in the winter, and grading would not be affected, as it was determined by the roll numbers in December. The subject was one which should be discussed by parent-teacher associations, Mr McNiel added. His remarks were supported by other members.